Duelist League: Training Day

The Duelist League is a non-partisan organization (not affiliated with a guild or alliance) open to all adventurers to register as duelist. Events are held regularly to welcome new duelists, train existing ones, and reach out to Adventurers to esplains what it is all about. Today has a Soujiro Seta running drills along with a were-fox lady in Carmina. The turnout is large, although a fair amount is Souji's fanclub that follows him around. "Excited to train?" Souji asks the group, getting some yeahs. He repeats, "Excite to traaaaiiin?" with more energy. A better 'yeah!'. "Me too! If you are new to dueling swing on over to this side and if you are here for drills, this side," he holds two flags, separating one side from the other. The new area is led by the fox as she starts to go over key safety regulations while people are sorting out. "Dueling can only occur in Root cities as part of the Dueling system. You /will/ be protected down to the last percentage of your health this way. Attacking another player OUTSIDE the protection of a Root City is engaging in PvP. And attacking another player without first issuing and accepting a duel within a City is met with Guardians. Remember: Be in a City. Request a duel. Don't be a tool. Don't be..." as Soujiro says out to move away from an upcoming censor, "... afraid to have fun!"

Dosbox, who was here two hours early, is really excited that the training is getting started. When directed, he heads to the newbie training side, and he listens to everything said with an impassioned look. He nods along with each fact listed, knowing this too is part if his training: remembering everything that is said.

Vertina is already doing some warm-up stretches while Soujiro makes his opening exposition dump. She knows all the ins and outs of dueling, she's here because the shining samurai and her have been training together to teach each other some of their newer techniques.

Yeowang is here, and seems to be a regular, though she's neither a member of the Duellists' League, nor a Soujira Seta fangirl. She will move to the side for drills, and start working on some of her newer moves, which seem to involve elbow strikes. She's known as a serious martial artist, and as someone who practiced before joining the game. Why she's never joined the League may be a mystery, but she hasn't been asked, and hasn't offered it. She simply practices her elbow strikes, advancing and leaning into each attack.

Vertina saunters over towards Yeowang, cracking her knuckles as she does so. "Care to take a few swings at something other than a dummy that just stands there and takes it?"

Soujiro Seta situates the newcomers to the dueling and PvP scene as paragon of combat enthusiasm. He gives Bory a smile and says, "Luck you, we get to pair up today." The loading screen of Mike Tyson's Punchout starts playing at the notion. The samurai quickly dispels several conceptions about dueling, "Dueling is different for everyone, so lets go through the paces for a minute long session," he says, equating to 5 rounds meta-wise, "and talk about the experience. The best questions come up by doing!" Its clear Souji was less of a 'read the manual' kind of gamer and more of a 'habitual' kind of pro. He starts off by swiping the menu and saying, "Dueling option is down there, by social. Near the friend request. Give it a shot then come at me."

Yeowang looks up to Vertina, seems to consider the offer, and admits, "I feel like I'm back in my first year of training. I'm hardly ready for any sort of competition, but I can provide you a moving target if you like." She's selling herself a bit short: she's got ten years of RL experience, but she's got the same amount of time in-game as everyone else, without the understanding of how to play the game that would let her maximize the use of it. This may be why she claims to be unprepared, her in-game skills are far behind what she feels she could do in RL.

Dosbox takes on a very serious face as nods with DETERMINATION to take this training seriously. His tone has dropped several octaves as he cries out, "Let's get this training going, SOUIJIRO SETA!!!! It's time to D-D-D-DUEL!!!!!" He smashes the duel button. He pulls a card from his hand with a flourish, "As I am the one who has been desitined to go first, I shall do all I can to prepare for the onslaught about to occur! I will play my Aero card, face up! This increases the amoung of utility cards I draw per turn by 1! As a utility specialist, this is of particular benefit to me, the SUPER SUPPORT, Borywick Rockborer, also known as DOSBOX! HA HA HA!

Vertina pfffs as she steps back and settles into a ready stance. "Oh com'n Yeowang, you've survived here just as long as the rest of us, don't sell yourself down like that." She didn't use 'short' like the saying usually goes because she didn't want to distract Dosbox from focusing on practicing with Soujiro. "Just give it your best, that's what training is for."

Yeowang nods to Vertina about surviving, and says, "Yes, but this is a game, not real life. Real life is much easier." She, infamously, is bad at the more gamely aspects of the game. But since Vertina wants to spar, she will have a go, and she's quite serious in that regard, so she squares up, bows, then charges forward, leaping into the air and spinning around, one heel coming in as she executes a flying roundhouse kick, and Chuck Norris be damned.

"Thats the spirit!" hypes up Soujiro with a clenched fist and an appropriate slam of the Duel Accept button. He offers a smile at the defense being put up. "I watched that show too back in the Old World," he says, being a big ole gamer nerd like that with a pure heart and bright, happy eyes. The samurai isn't one to disrespect his opponent by going easy. His pose lowers as a foot sweeps back. It is barely a telegraph as he takes a step forward.

Wait. What happened? He was just in front of Bory a second ago. Now he is on the other side of duelist with his katanas extended. When did he attack?! It was so fast that the red damage lines come later, along with the crash of lightning of thunder.

Vertina might of gotten a bit more than she asked for when Yeowang comes hurtling towards her. But she rolls with it. Literally, as she does a backwards roll to get into a more defensive crouch and bring up her arms in a X. It's not enough to avoid the attack, but she moves just enough for the kick to come up a little shorter and less forceful of the impact. Still grunts as it actually impacts with her arms. "And you said you weren't ready." Vertina recovers, and as she gets back up makes a quick thrust at Yeowang's midsection, going for a distracting strike to the gut with the technique she was previously taught, since Yeowang doesn't use magic artes going for a throat chop would be kinda pointless.

Yeowang hasn't yet mastered a lot of the in-game systems, and magic is one of the in-game systems she's terrible at and avoids using. She fades away from Vertina's counterattack like she wasn't there, and she resumes her attack from a different angle, with concentration like a hunter staring down a bow, she delivers rapid, hard punches one after the other towards Vertina, attempting to force her to remain in that defensive position. "I still don't feel ready," she claims by way of excuse. "I was much /better/ than this in real life. I feel like I'm underwater."

While the Yugi-oh reference was well received, DosBox would have done well to paying attention to what he was doing. He had seen Soujiro use this attack once before on a monster during a quest. Internally, DosBox curses to himself. Externally, he, in a panic, throws up Rock Cradle to lessen the damage. There were better spells he could have used, but his first duel is leaving him flustered. In a daze, he turns 180 degrees and throws his hand forward, glowing veridian. Thorny vines wrap around Soijiro, the tell-tale visual representation of a Thorn Bind Hostage...

There is a squint of Soujiro's eyes as he notices the panic, the mounting frustration. "Eyes on the prize," he throws out a token Taunt from the Samurai skilltree. It forces the opponent to look at him as the vines take root over his personage. One of his katanas scraps along the dark vine, whipping it back the Support in an upward strike then following through with a downward motion. All basic moves there that show how to chain them together in the pace of a duel.

Vertina takes a step back, and it almost looks like she's stumbling. But manages to avoid one of Yeowang's swings as she does so. Then veers in the other direction. It looks awkward and chaotic, though in reality its very controlled motions that just look clumsy as she weaves around the first few attacks, then looks like she chumps right into the second series of blows. But at the same time she throws a strong haymaker punch back at Yeowang to try and drive her off again.

Yeowang looks worried for Vertina, is she drunk? Yeowang knows she runs a bar, but doesn't know if she routinely shows up to train while three sheets to the wind. As she weaves, Yeowang realizes it's all a ploy, but it's put her off her rhythm, and she only manages a weak strike as she tries various defensive ploys, finally taking a deep breath to center herself, raising her situational awareness to fantastic levels and deflecting the attack meant for her easily. But at the same time, her own rhythm has been upset, and her counterpunch is a tentative punch, meant to be used in a situation where more defense is needed, it sets her up to counter incoming attacks, but is not a hard attack like her first attacks have been.

Vertina smirks a little as she realizes her erratic movements have had the intended effect. When the less focused strike comes her way she's more able to avoid it, twirling away and leaving a brief burst of flames in her wake. But the fire doesn't stop there. It rarely does with Salamanders, but even more so as after her evasive movement Vertina plants her foot, pivots, and comes right back at Yeowang with a roaring warcry and a fist engulfed in flames flying at the other martial artist!

Dosbox notes the sparkles in Soujiro's eyes, which catches him off guard. With a stomp of the gnome's foot, he decides to go on the defensive, which works to his benefit, as he barely manages to dodge the attacks coming his way from the samurai. Dosbox knows that if he so much as blinks, this duel will be over.

Yeowang can't do much about the flames coming at her. A martial arts attack is one thing, but she's never really sure with magic. She acts like it's not as bad as it is, the pain suppression system muting the pain she'd normally feel from such an attack. That confuses her. Was she attacked, or did she get a sunburn? It's hard to say.

But she's back on the counter-attack quickly, executing a preemptive strike to hopefully foil Vertina executing any more clever attacks before throwing a nerve strike, which should further hamper her foe. She's not sure how these things will play out, her PVP experience is minimal.

Soujiro Seta shines bright like a diamond. Must be all that electricity in the air! He keeps a steady pace of slashes with his basic motions that each have this degree of weight and precision behind the swings of the katanas. An advance on the Gnome step over step.

This time there's no juking and weaving. Vertina just digs in her heels and braces herself, as if drawing on some resolution from the ground itself. She waits for Yeowang to make her move, using her solid stance to take the blow, and then retaliate with rapid swipes using the claws on the back of her battle gloves. She's trying to balance defense and offense, with the way Yeowang keeps throwing both big hits and smaller techniques at her. "I still think you're not giving yourself enough credit Yeowang"

It's obvious that DosBox, even with magical assistance to hasten his movements, cannot keep up with the master swordsman. Cut after cut begins to shave off his health. He attempts a paltry attack using a quick snakebite spell before rolling up into a ball and launching himself a distance away with a stone catapult. Having a split second to compose himself, DosBox begins to form lightning in his hands as he calls out in a baritone voice,

"UNLIMITED POWER!!!!"

With all the might of a sith sorcerer, DosBox lets out his biggest attack, Lord of Vermillion, sending tines of lightning at Soujiro.

Soujiro Seta stands at the ready for the big attack. That is part of the fun of fighting, seeing those attacks and responding to them. The samurai cloaks himself in flame, holding both of his katanas out in a block to hold the electrical storm at bay as rogue electricity sparks about. He advances. Step over step. The kamehameha advance of forces until he is right upon Bory.

Ding! Time is up.

"Nice Vermillion," Souji says at the end, the duel notification flashing and dropping. "Tell me a bit about how it felt. Saw that opener was frustrating, but you were finding a support style toward the end there. Those are deadly when pulled off."

Yeowang is taking more of Vertina's hits, her defensive technique is not up to the task of keeping the battle gloves at bay. Her defense is better than she expected, though, and she's got to concentrate to see she's been injured. Taking a hit here is not like taking a hit in RL. The feedback is so different! On the other hand, she's competitive and relentless, both in-game and out of game, so maybe she's selling herself short? But she really doesn't feel the game lets her go all out. She executes a viscious axe kick at Vertina, her heel descending like a guillotine blade.

Dosbox is mid-air when the match is called, and he immediately starts going through his abilities, "If I use that card, I won't have enough time to use this card ever, which makes that combo relatively impossible. Perhaps I need to focus more on the EN values of each attack and BA-OOOF!!!" DosBox forgot he was in mid-air and did not stick the landing. His HP meter starts chiming loudly about how low his HP is. His face firmly planted into the ground, DosBox replies to Soujiro, "I think that I had a lot of misconceptions as to the flow of duels, and I have had those clarified. I have a lot to think about." He rolls over, looking up at Soujiro with a toothy grin, "Thanks for showing these things to me. This training was wholly worthwhile!"

Soujiro Seta gives a healthy thumbs up, "Keep at it, you are a good duelist." He is one of those 'everyone is awesome and deserves hugs' + 'unless you want to hurt my friends then I am going to rip off your arm and beat you with it'. But mostly the first one, like a big happy doggo. "Unranked matches are a good way to train if you are ever in the mood, as well as many like minded duelist." There are plenty going on with thier sessions on the new and vet sides of the plaza. "It is very satisfying when a combo or setup plays out. Or seeing what kind of strategy someone comes up with. Expands how you think and prepare for it!"

Yeowang is definitely selling herself short. As she switches tactics again and Vertina has to try and keep up. Well, her best chance seems to be to play on her opponent not being so familiar with magic. Not that Vertina calls it magic either. But she uses her more mystical techniques to do something that causes the visual of her to blurr, and when she moves away from the axe kick it's hard to tell just which way she went, as it connects with just her upper arm as she moves instead of slamming into her as hard. The Salamander is briefly hazy and hard to look at. Like a desert mirage. But pulling that off in short order seems to have held her back from attacking immeadiately.

Dosbox nods as he stands up, brushing himself off, "Even seeing how a combo DOESN'T go off can bring knowledge. Lord of Vermillion is a really powerful spell, but I feel like it would be used better in different situations than this. Especially if I had managed to use it when the Thorns were up on you."

Soujiro Seta motions a hand outwards the Vertina-Yeowang fight on the other side of the plaza, "Thorn Bind Hostage has this timing component to it. Shiroe was very good at it and it excels in team fights. I only know one other person that makes good use of that ability and its less for dealing damage and more for making you go on the defensive or get punished for it." The young samurai is not all that smart about smart things, but in combat he is a savant.

Yeowang is fighting as hard as she can in what still, after two years, is a confusing and alien situation. She's used to entierly mundane fights, and with full pain senses. The dulled pain and the magic both disorient her. On the other hand, when her opponent doesn't attack she can compose herself and go back on the warpath, sticking with the basics, a defensive strike followed by a basic punch, hard and no-nonsense.

Ameia puts her arms behind her head and stretches, having watched some of Dos and Soujiro's training match. "Lord of Vermillion is an attack that needs support to be maximised," she comments. "Since it's a multi-hit. If you can't provide that, then you're better off playing a single-hit poke or perhaps a utility spell to set you up for next time."

She sits down. "But, take that with a grain of salt. I'm no duellist."

Dosbox nods, not knowing who Shiroe is, but thinking he is supposed to know, so he pretends. "I am not a duelist either. That's why I came today. I think... Maybe I don't really have the skills to be a duelist yet. I am, after all, the Super Support. Still, with some research, and some practice, I think I will be able to do something about that. This is really fun, after all!"

Soujiro Seta looks to Bory with a warm smile, "You dueled me. You are officially a duelist!" Perhaps not the Duelist League, but its like dancing. Everyone can dance! He turns to Ameia when the imp stops on by. A SEA reunion! "It sounds like you and Bory would be good partners. Always good to grow alongside friends and set your sights to heights." Enthusiasm! Sparkles! All the sparkles. There is a fangirl out there that is swooning.

Vertina isn't the most defense oriented person in the first place, but she knows a few tricks. Like knowing that her opponent is likely going to be consistant in using melee attacks. So she takes advantage of one of her elemental abilities, and stomps a foot on the ground to cause a burst of flames to erupt from it. A shot of flames that while not powerful at blocking an attack, forces her opponent to come threw them to hit her. Which Yeowang does. Vertina staggers backwards, hit pretty good.

Maybe even stumbled a little farther than she should of. But that might not be realized before she takes advantage of the situation, drawing together both Fire and Earth into a spherical shape. Then releases, and whips her body around to slam her foot into the ball of flaming stone and send it hurtling towards Yeowang with a powerful soccer kick!

Dosbox starts flailing his arms around, sweating profusely, "P-p-p-partners? I.. Uh... I haven't known Ameia for that long and, I... uh...," The gnome quickly realizes the samurai meant for dueling and adventuring, and not the other thing that came to DosBox's mind, "And uh... I wouldn't want to hold her back or anything. Uh, yeah..."

Yeowang's defense is not the best, she's what is popularly known as a glass cannon, and though she defends as best she can against the soccer ball from hell, she can't completely avoid it. Well, part of that is her strategy. She can't afford to let up the pressure of the attack, and to defend that attack would have left her out of position. As it is, the precise movements as she avoids the attack leaves her out of position for most attacks, and Vertina might think herself safe, but Yeowang doesn't need to haul off to punch, and with no backward motion, punches from almost full extension and strikes a full-strength blow at her opponent.

Vertina .. did not realize you could do that kind of punch here. So it takes her a moment to realize what Yeowang is doing, and by that point, all she can do is try to catch the fist. She does, but it violently snaps her arm back when it's more powerful than she expected. Good thing for the pain dampening! That still LOOKS pretty rough with the way her arm jerks though. Vertina quickly retaliates though, lashing out with her other hand to use the glove claws and try to get Yeowang to back off again.

Ameia crosses her arms. "Partners implies a mutually beneficial arrangement. So far, I've just been Dos's lifeline for staying relevant in Scale since he cut ties with his old friends. I'm sure he'll grow out of it soon."

Standing up, she walks into the training area. "Why don't you see how Dos performs against another magic user?" She looks over at Soujiro with a slight smirk. "Maybe you can teach me something, too?"

Yeowang feels glad to have caught Vertina off guard with that, that's the main purpose of that strike. Vertina's counterattack is met with very precise motions, stepping just barely aside and letting the blow slide past her and striking back with a combination attack that starts off hampering Vertina before finishing the combo with a viscious axe kick, her heel coming down like a guillotine.

Dosbox begins to sweat, "I mean, I think we already determined that my wave arts aren't ready for dueling. I need to make a couple of edits, you know...? It's not that I don't WANT to duel you or anything, but I am not sure if you would learn as much from the experience as you would with a prepared caster. Heh heh...."

Vertina is finding that while Yeowang doesn't have some of the fancier abilities other Adventurers do, what she does do in a fight she does very well. So this becomes one of those moments that Vertina just steps right into the attacks, though doing so to position herself so the axe kick lands on her shoulder. It's a solid hit, but it's also Vertina trying to get herself inside Yeowang's reach so she can launch a fiery hard uppercut at the other martial artist!

Yeowang takes that fiery uppercut on the chin, her stealthy scouting skills are not able to mitigate much damage, thuogh she manages to roll with the punch a little bit. It's necessary, she was out of position, and she's trying to put her utmost into each attack combination, and that leaves her with limited attention to defense. The blow rocks her, but she counters with a hunter's precision and another axe kick, the attack serves her well, trying to force her opponent back on the defensive. This is the definition of a knock-down drag-out fight. Her hair is a mess, some of it has come loose from the big bun its normally tied up in, and she's covered in bruises and scratches, and definitely looks rode hard and put away wet. But her eyes remain filled with grim determination.

Soujiro Seta has time for another. He lives for this sort of stuff. "I duel because its fun and if others find the fun in it, all the better. No need to measure him against another, as he is perfect the way he is right now on his journey," he says with pure hearted sparkles surrounding him. Then there is that grin, "That extends to you as well. I could do another duel." His health bar was, well, mostly untouched.

Ameia shrugs and holds out her hand. "Well, if Dos doesn't feel up to it then that's fine. I'll play with Soujiro," she says. "Time to see what kind of power we Scalers bring in the sword department, huh?" With a quick step, she makes up some distance between herself and the samurai, then turns to look at him, placing a hand on her hip.

Vertina looks equally roughed up to say the least. She doesn't have the defensive strats to deal with someone with offensive builds like her own. but she's trying, because thats what training and practice is for. Her movements blurr, again going for the fast and erratic style that seems to at least partially keep Yeowang off guard. She can't completely avoid the damage though, and still gets knocked around a bit more even as she goes for something a bit more cliche and aim a hand chop at Yeowang's neck and shoulder.

Soujiro Seta gets the incoming duel request and taps the 'Accept' button when Ameia is at the distance most comfortable. Katanas in their sayas still he holds that 'samurai dueling' pose with the wind billowing his ponytail and everything.

Ameia starts off with a simple combo, casting a fireball at the awaiting samurai. She laces the attack with a frost shock spell to hurt his guard, anticipating that Soujiro would, sensibly, try to defend against the attack. Her black skirt billows slightly in the wake of that flaming missile.

Yeowang twists into the blow rather the away from it, her reasoning that it doesn't hurt so much, and that leaves her more able to concentrate on her own attack. It costs her HP, but not too much, her speed making this all happen in a blur. She strikes back with a basic blow, keeping it simple for now, she's too close to down to play very fancy with the tricks and techniques that they used at the beginning of the match. It's very close to the edge now, and it could still go either way, both women look like thay're in rough shape.

Soujiro Seta begins to walk towards Ameia when the Wave Artes fire up. Not only does Souji lean into the expectation of guarding the attack, he evokes a technique he learned from training with Shiruba to wade through such chilly storms. A sword is drawn, redirecting parts of the fireball as he gets singed and closes for a draw of his holy blade in twin slash.

By this point Vertina has accepted that she can't just out-defend Yeowang's offensive abilities. So instead she uses a combination of her elemental and ki abilities to ignite her movements on flame once more, to at least deliver some retaliation for the blows Yeowang does land. And laughs a bit while at it. "For someone that 'doesn't know what they're doing' you're doing it very well!" Competitive spirit is high, even if she's getting knocked around pretty good. In an effort to catch Yeowang off-guard again she quickly switches tactics, going through the motions of combo of two rapid punches and a spinning kick... Even though she's not close enough to Yeowang to hit her?

That's the trick, as the movements send multiple bursts of wind shearing towards the other woman!

Ameia takes a step back, but otherwise makes little effort to block Soujiro's attack, and recieves the brunt of both sword slashes with a wince as they slash through her dress and draw blood. Though it hurts, this is just how she tends to fight. Instead, she retaliates with a blast of darkness at point blank range, followed by peppering her opponent with icicles. She knows it's not good to be so close to Soujiro, given that she's primarily a ranged fighter. So, she's looking for a way out before she gets cut to pieces.

Yeowang is bad with the magical and elemental attacks. She has the defenses that are built into her class, and she can defend the physically visible attacks, but the magic catches her off guard. On the other hand, the motions of the combo -look- like an attack, and she defends against that adequately, taking a couple hits, bumping her closer to the edge. She counters with another basic strike, but with a subtle twist this time, so that it will hit harder than normal. Which perhaps makes it a less than basic strike, but fancy combos are generally borne from the additive effects of several simpler techniques. "I've been fighting since I was in grade school," she admits to Vertina. "But I've had to learn it all over again here. Basic stances. Attacks. Everything."

Soujiro Seta gives Ameia and Bory both a show of exactly how fast the samurai's reflexes are. The empowered ice shards are deflected one after the other while his body is wrapped in debilitating darkness. It is the sound that is heard in the sharp ting-ting-ting repetition, one final shard splintering back in a return counter attack. He grins, keeping a steady, dauntless stide as his endurance appears boundless. Like a Friday the 13th event two days too late.

Ameia uses that time Soujiro spends basically being a jedi with his katanas, to make her escape. She does leave the immediate range of those samurai blades, but not without taking some chip damage from that counterattack.

Overall, it was a compromise she didn't want to make. However, Soujiro had just been way faster than she was expecting; that was something she needs to adjust to, and quickly.

She uses a common ward to enhance herself with the element of Earth, and then strikes Soujiro with lightning. If he's going to be a Jedi, she'll channel a little bit of Sith, no?

Vertina stands her ground the best she can. The elements shift again, first as she again draws some resolution from the earth beneath her feet. Then on the fluidity of water. Water was the one she was still the least apt with, so now was the time to get some practice in with it. She basically just forgoes the fact that Yeowang keeps throwing off her own groove, and launches to meet her in the clash. Ribbons of water swirl as she spiral around, executing what might look like a familiar spinning kick maneuver to some, just with the addition of water. This creates some really vibrant clashes and splashes as the two Godhand's blows collide with each other.

... But in the end, it's Vertina that ends up on her back on the ground afterwards. Fortunately the Duel code stops the fight before they can do anything like accidentially kill someone. "That hurt, but at least I pulled it off! Whoo!" She waves a hand a little overhead. Must be one of her newer techniques considering she only learned how to control Water a few months ago.

The Scale Samurai continues his relentless pursuit in the same way a Soulsborne boss talks around an arena. When the next Wave Arte set is being cast he stops. The animation is already in motion. He lowers his stance and prepares for a counter offensive.

Don't blink or you'll miss it. Bory, try to track this one!

There is a two frame rush during the assault and then suddenly Souji is on the other side of Ameia, both katanas extended with a vicious attack.

Yeowang looks a bit surprised when she sees Vertina going down ass over teakettle, but ohs, and the duel is ended by the system. "Oh!" Looks like she won? She's clearly not used to that. But having won, she will face Vertina and bow formally, because that's what you do, and then reaches down to offer her a hand up. "You have taught me a great deal," she says sincerely. "I did not think I was ready for competition. But now I think I have a better idea of what to do to be competitive."

Ameia feels the wind whip past her as Soujiro closes the gap in a matter of frames. It's enough of a warning for her to cast a protective spell, deflecting the angle of his blade with Air magic as it slices towards her. Against an attack that requires flawless execution, it's enough for her to escape with a mere slice across the shoulder.

Turning her body to face him, she engulfs Soujiro again with Fire while considering her options. At this rate, she knows she'll just get worn down unless she finds a way to get past the samurai's seemingly impenetrable defense.

Vertina accepts the helping hand up. "You are more than capable of a competitive fight Yeowang." It's martial arts tradition and she returns the bow after she's back on her feet. "But you get too much into your own headspace, working yourself over about if you are or not. I've been there, trust me. Sometimes the only way to deal with doubts is to face them and shove them aside."

Then she finally turns her attention to the rest of the sessiion. "Looks like Soujiro attracted some eager learners today."

The blue haired samurai turns around to face Ameia with the serious 'fight mode' face on. Souji loves to see how people react, respond. Its a language of its own. Quite impressive to leave the exchange without larger losses and enough to get another fire attack ripped in his direction. The tanky sword saint does not avoid the fire, he charges through it and cleaves it in half to clear a way to attack and press the offensive. The following blow coming not from the sharp blade, but the blunt end of his hilt. Not /quite/ a Lanius Capture, but with dem arms? Dat training Souji does? Stronk.

Yeowang smiles to Vertina, and says, "Perhaps so. I find the complicated tactical fighters too confusing and don't know what tactics to use." Uta took her apart, for instance. "But you are right. Training and practice will see us through. That and an elbow in two or three places." She's currently working on making an effective strike with her elbow. She seems to rely on several unconventional attacks.

Vertina pats Yeowang on the shoulder. "Tactics? What tactics?" She laughs at herself a bit. "Okay I'm not THAT dense, but other than a basic plan of action I'm more likely to follow gut instinct and reflex than try to think too many steps ahead in the game. Sometimes it works. Sometimes I end up on my ass on the grass. That's how games go."

Yeowang nods to Vertina, and says, "I mean the heavily tactical people, like Uta, who's quite wily. She doesn't slam people like a seven-foot troll, but that's harder for me to deal with. A brawler is more straightforward. You're tactical, but not as convoluted as, for instance, Kauchemar."

Vertina snorts softly at the mention of Uta. "Yeah, I've matched up with Uta too. Learned a few evasive tricks from fighting her... though they've more useful in dealing with dungeon traps and such than in fighting most of the time. But I can't tell if that Spriggan is planning, or just that chaotic."

Yeowang nods about Uta, and says, "Plan as if she means it. Then you won't be taken off guard. And if not, then you're not out anything." other than the time spent worrying. "But that was quite a hard fight we had. We're definitely closely matched." She nods gravely.

Ameia sees that katana-hilt approaching her face thorugh the cloud of fire and steps out of the way... by several meters using a lightning spell, flashing her backwards across the training area and avoiding the blow. Taking up a mage's stance, she casts two spells against Soujiro. The first is a darkness spell aimed at the samurai's mind, aiming to disorient him and perhaps gain some advantage for her in their fight.

Debuffs are effective on Soujiro as much as they are on anybody else. He offers one of his own, a taunt. An intensity to the air that forces opponents to keep facing him. Not a big deal if you are tanky, but for evasive types it makes things tricky. As if he knows one of the artes is going to blow away his defenses, he tosses up a light fire guard, soaking it up and leaving a crispy damage shield before going on the offensive. Two katanas with two strikes, both charged with crackling energy.

Vertina nods her head to Yeowang. "Fair point. And not that surprising. We're both Godhands after all. Just with focuses on different styles within that."

Yeowang nods to Vertina about styles. "I keep thinking in terms of real world styles. MMA, and Tae Kwon Do, kickboxing, and so on. They don't seem to mean anything here, but I'd always borrowed from various styles, myself. Kung Fu was the core, but I borrowed from several styles. The closest I had to a rival was a kickboxer, but she wasn't much. I had a harder time with physically much larger opponents. It makes more difference in real life than the game seems to account for."

    Asuna has largely remained in the background during all of this. She doesn't usually do these training activities. Well, not outside her own guild, anyway. But time with Soujiro and with his training ideas is always time well spent.

    So she's somehow become a teacher. The focus of her classes? Counter attacks for lighter blades.

    "So remember, the riposte is just a part of your overall skill set. It is not some guaranteed fight-ending move." A pause. "In this game, you are aren't going to win a duel with one attack. This isn't like that stupid Dragon Ball Z stuff."

    She's never seen it, but she's rather sick of it coming up. It's kind of embarrassing when it does, too. Fortunately, the people she's working with seem beyond that. Or she'd probably have to pull out her butter knife.

Following a long exchange between the two, Ameia feels herself automatically exit the duel as Soujiro takes the last of her HP. She sits down at the edge of the training area, visibly tired from their session. "I can't say it went differently to how I imagined, but I was hoping to at least do something," she says, smiling sheepishly.

"It was interesting, though. I should probably work on my player-to-player combat. Even so, I only have access to magical abilities. So you won't get to train me. Ahh, too bad." She leans back. "Maybe I'll just figure it out myself, as always."

Soujiro Seta tilts his head to the side in a degree of question mark material there. "You are not along in your training," he says warmly as the duel ends, "if you ever want to try something out, the League is available with tons of different types of duelists." The sword saint offers a bit of a wave over to Asuna, accenting the point, as they have different fighting styles but both are very good at them! "Wave Arte specialists," he thinks, "Doc comes to mind." He means Proph of SEA. "Also Kau, Rory here." A bemonocled Enchanter who SHANT be named.

    "Remember, this is just practice so try to.."

    "Pull your punches on the opener as your partner improves their ripo..."

    There's an explosion.

    "...what are you doing!? We are doing ripostes, that's an AOE!"

    There's a bit of commotion, as a pair of sparring partners appear to going swiftly from the 101 level to an undeclared duel.

Ameia finally notices Asuna, who seems to have been instructing while she and Soujiro were training. "It looks like something's going on over there. Is Asuna gonna be fine by herself?" she asks. "Maybe you should go check it out, Soujiro."

Soujiro Seta looks over toward Asuna and then back to Ameia, who is... giving him suggestions on what to do with his time? He gives a light shake. "She is extremely capable and great with people," he says with a warm, pure hearted smile. While things explode. The samurai looks over as he pulls out Souji Tea to drink. Refreshing. "Asuna," he calls back over to her, "what drills are you running?" Explosions are part of the experience! "Need any tea?"

    "Tea sounds great, Soujiro! We're working on counter attacks!"

    Asuna is, at the moment, wading into see just what is going on. She notices, then that it is actually a fully declared duel.

    "Looks like we got a couple live ones here, though!"

    While nobody is new to the game, these two are clearly new to dueling. There are a lot of folks who have stuck to the cities or just done some small quests on the side. But there's nothing quite like fighting another intelligent being. Especially one that you've had a grudge with for a year due to a stolen boyfriend.

    Asuna shrugs it off and turns her attention away from the duel. Nothing much she can do there, and it's not exactly a training exercise, considering the umm.. 'colorful' comments being made.

    "You know what, everyone? Let's take a little break while these two beat each other senseless. I'm going to have some tea."

    She heads over to Soujrio. She's amused, now. The shouts from the duel are getting far more descriptive! She calls back, "You know, I'm not sure that's anatomically possible, but if you design that technique, I want to learn it!"

Soujiro Seta gets a cup of tea ready for Asuna, having a Three Samurai's cup just for her. Name on it and everything. "Everyone appears to be having a great time," he hands one over. More of a 'how are people feeling' over 'what are the results' sort of fella. "I stretched out a couple techniques I learned and put together over the last months. Very enjoyable to execute!" So many of the basics were lost during the Apoc event a couple years back. He rebuilt a few of the classics.

    "It sure seems that you have some very high-spirited people in attendance! Why, all I had to do was start with a few basics about sponding to attacks and the next thing you know, a pair of trainees were answering slights from months ago!"

    Asuna loves that she has her own mug. It's really sweet. Sure, she's got Three Samurai commemorative plates, too, but to see that kind of affection returned in kind melts her heart. She thinks she'll had to up her game. Maybe she can get Soujiro a special pair of chopsticks.

    "So you are getting back into top shape already? That didn't take you very long, did it?" She knows she's not anywhere near that. Too much time off getting rust with her depressing solo crusade. That whole mess is over! She's turned her whole life around now. And her fellow ronin have been there with her the entire time.

    "Oh, I have something exciting to tell you! I'm finally getting the old Lambent Light remade. I mean, it'll be different, but it will look the same."